Telephonic house protection system



g- 8 939- J. J. BROWN 2,168,320

'IELEPHONIC HOUSE PROTECTION SYSTEM Filed April 7, 1936 2 Shuts-Sheet 1 SPECIAL BAN K SECON D SELECTORS mum:

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RLEULAH BANK FIRST EELECTD is SUBSCRIBERS TELEPHUNES Aug. 8, 1939. J. J. BROWN TELEPHONIC HOUSE PROTECTION SYSTEI 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April '7, 1936 1 6's If Brown,

Gum/MW NIH ll Patented Aug. 8, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE" TELEPHONIC HOUSE PROTECTION SYSTEM Jesse J. Brown, Syracuse, N. Y. Application April I, 1986, Serial No. 73,177

13 Claim.

This invention relates to a building protection system and apparatus adapted for use with the ordinary dial telephone system for the automatic transmission of suitable and distinctive signals.

to indicate any abnormal condition or conditions in the building thus protected.

While the invention is well adapted and designed for indicating automatically to a central station or desired location the failure of the building heating plant such as an oil burner, gas burner or automatic coal stoker normally used to heat the building, the equipment and system of the invention is equally well adapted for many other uses such as to indicate excess heat and give an alarm of fire, or to transmit a burglar alarm, or flood conditions, or, in fact, any predetermined abnormal condition of which it is desired to be advised while the occupants of the building are absent.

To this end I make use of devices automatically responsive to the special conditions about which it is desired to signal, selected according to the requirements of the particular character of warning desired and which in the case of automatic heating plants would be special thermostats mounted in different parts of the building and arranged to act as room-condition responsive devices to automatically set in action a device adapted to transmit signals over the telephone line the same as those transmitted by the manipulation of the ordinary dail telephone but the signals transmitted being of course of the character to give the desired information or warning after bringing into action a special central equipment.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be better understood from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and 40 the distinctive features of novelty will be thereafter pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a. diagrammatic elevation showing an illustrative embodiment of my invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view of essential working portions thereof;

Figure 3 is an end View looking from the right in Figure 2 and with a portion broken away in section, and

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the signaling drums and associated mechanism.

It) indicates a series of special thermostats, shown as four in number to be mounted in selected parts of the building to be protected, in 55 circuit with a battery I I and with a holding magnet coil I 2. l3 denotes a weighted lever pivoted at Ila and biased so that it tends to swing downward away from the coil l2 when its armature l3b is released by said magnet coil. When thus permitted to drop by opening of any of the 5 thermostats "I, the weighted end I30 of this lever strikes the rear end a of a latch lever .II which is pivoted at I! to a fixed support. The resulting swinging of the latch lever 14 lifts a detent Mb at the front end thereof out of a notch IS in a 10 signal drum n. The signal drum I1 is mounted to turn on a shaft l8 and is acted on by a spring and governor mechanism I9 housed therein and which may be of any usual or suitaible type adapted to turn the drum at a pre-determined 15 rate of speed when released by the detent Mb. The drum I'I bears a raised portion 20 at the locality of the notch l6 which holds a resilient contact bearing blade 2| so that the contact 210. borne thereby is separated from a fixed contact 20 22. As the drum "starts to turn, in a clockwise direction, as shown, the raised portion 20 passes from under the spring blade 2| permitting the contacts Ma, 22 to close. These contacts control a circuit 23 which is an extension of the build- 25 ing telephone circuit and hence the closing of the contacts 2 la, 22 is equivalent to removing the receiver of a telephone from its hook, closing the circuit to the central oillce and the first bank of selectors 24. As the drum l1 continues to revolve, 0 other shorter raised portions or lugs on the surface of the drum act to momentarily raise the blade 2| and break the telephone circuit at 2m, 22, sending corresponding impulses over the wire and setting up the automatic selector switches 85 for the central desized, which in this case, is a special central 25, connected not to other telephones but to a bank of registers similar to those widely used in telegraph messenger call service and other like uses, and to the first vacan reg- 40 ister. Energization of this register designated generally at 26 causes a magnet coil 21 thereof to swing a latch lever 28 which is pivoted at 29 causing the latch thereof to release a weighted lever 30 which is pivoted at 3|. The swinging of lever 46 30 through internal connections operates to release the spring motor (not shown) of this register for the functioning of the register,-it being understood that the lever 30 will re-set manually after the operation. As the drum ll rotates 60 farther, other lugs on its periphery cause more impulses to be sent over the described connection and these cause the subscribers phone number to be dialed, followed if desired, by a code signal. These last impulses or breaks in the circuit cause tape 32 by a usual inking mechanism or by holes punched in the tape by the operation of the register. A relay magnet 33 is also energized by the first connection to the register and by attracting its armature 34 permits a weighted contact bearing lever SI to swing about its pivot closing contacts 31 in a battery circuit II which is adapted to operate a buzzer a and a pilot lamp 40. The described movement of the lever 35 also closes a connection 4| through the selector switches and to the subscribers station until released by the attendant by his operation of a manual key 42 to break the circuit. 'Ihisis 'accomplished by having the lever 35 grounded. As seen in Figure 2, the system is illustratively shown as provided with two sets of thermostats, i. e., the set II which may be responsive to a certain temperature minimum say, to open when the room temperature falls to 40 F. and to the functioning of these thermostats the selected code may assign one dash on the tape. A second set of thermostats ll' may be set to open when the tempera-- the coil i2, permitting the weighted lever to fall and by engaging the rear end a of the lever i4, trip its detent llb'to release the drum l1 and permit it to turn under the action of its spring and governor it. The resulting closing of the contacts lie, 22 makes a. connection to thecentral office and dials the special central by the action of the first set of lugs 43 on the drum i1; this automatically connects the calling station to a vacant one of the registers 26 and starts such register in operation by releasing the latch lever 28. The connection of the line to the register also energizes the relay 33, releasing the contact lever 35 which closes the grounding contact 4| and also closes the contacts 31,-this latter'energizing the pilot lamp and buzzer to give indication of information to the attendant The continued rotation of the drum l1 then .brings the second set of lugs H on the drum into play, and the sub-' scribers station number is dialed, these impulses registering on the tape and indicating where the call has originated; at this time the code indicia is also registered on the tape, indicating which set of thermostats has operated. There is then a waiting period during which the attendant at central may dial the numbers shown,-as a check,which should result in a busy signal. Continued rotation of the drum I! then causes a third set of lugs to repeat the number and code slgnal,as a check, and the line is restored to normal condition (at the calling end only) by the raised portion 20 of the drum again engaging the spring blade 2| to open the contacts lid, 22 of the circuit to central. The detent llb again drops into the notch l6 and stops the drum. The

attendant first using the release key 42, then dials the subscribers number again to attempt to establish communication with anyone who may be in the building, and this serves as a further check on the calling station as the line should DOW e- 2,168,820 s a corresponding record to be made on the register spond to the attendant's call and he should hear the subscriber's phone-ringing. If no answer is received the attendant notifies the service department of the heating equipment company so that aservice man may be sent to restore the house burner or stoker to proper operatiom-or if the code indicates high temperature the fire department is notified. The contacts 4i are used to hold the connection through the several banks of connectors should it be desired to trace .the origin of the call. and the attendant may leave this connection on until he has dialed all but the last digit of the number and then press the release key 42, thus eliminating the bare possibility of ginsother call to this number getting in ahead of The described system is capable of being enlarged and extended almost indefinitely so as to include burglar alarm wiring, in which case of course when one of the protective switches operates its drum and code signal, the police car could be notified; suitable condition-responsive alarms could. be arranged to cause instant notification of the operation of sprinkler systems: basements subject to flooding could be caused to give instant notification or a predetermined water level. The blowing out of fuses could be signaled merely by connecting the holding relay I! through such fuse and time-delay devices could be arranged-to give warningcf the electric power being oflf for a pre-determined length of time.

Other suitable condition-responsive devices corresponding to the thermostats ll could be provided within the contemplation of my invention to be responsive to coal gas or illuminating gas and thus give warning of dangerous conditions therefrom so that the attendant at central could attempt toawaken the occupants by phone and then if necessary call the police.

Many other variations of the described system are possible and practicable, some of which would be of a special nature, yet all embodying the basic idea of using the. dial telephone connection to a building to register automatically through selected condition-responsive devices any abnormal condition of which it is desired to give warning to an outside location where someone is in constant attendance. The condition-responsive device may cause a bell to ring in the same building before dialing central, by using a much longer raised portion 2. on the dialing drum to provide.the delay, and allowing lever II to make the necessary bell contact when lever l3 drops.- This arrangement would permit a person in the building to prevent the call from going in to central by lifting the receiver from the hook of the telephone set, and attend to theabnormal conditions in response to the alarm bell. This alarm bell would obviously not be provided on a burglar alarm circuit. This is an optional arrangement and because its operation is perfectly obvious is not shown on the drawings. If however, no one is in the building, or is unable for any reason to respond to the alarm, the drum transmits the information to central as above described. As shown herein the number chosen for the "special central" and as" seen at 43 is 11112. This is designed to eliminate any false alarms that might be sent in manually from a regular dial phone by a person learning what this special number 1+1112 might be. 'The 1" central usually connects to a bank of company phones and the 12 would not be possible from a regular dial set,this would require that the 1" banks of switches be provided with twelve steps instead of the usual 10.

I am aware that the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spiritor essential attributes thereof and I therefore desire the present embodiment to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appended claims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Building protection apparatus comprising a dial telephone system, an automatically acting transmitter constructed and arranged for transmitting dialing impulses to said system of a character different and distinct from the impulses produced by the manual dial telephone, with locking means for holding said transmitter normally inactive, a condition-responsive device adapted to release said locking means upon the occurrence of an abnormal condition, and a special central connected in said dial telephone system and constructed to receive and record warning indicia from said automatically acting transmitter only.

2. Building protection apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the automatic transmitter comprises a rotary drum bearing contact breaking projections with spring means tending to turn said drum, and a latch to hold-the drum against rotation except when tripped by the action of said condition-responsive device.

3. Building protection apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means for holding the automatic transmitter normally inactive comprises a pivoted and weighted latch lever, and with means associated with said condition-responsive device to trip said latch lever and release said automatic transmitter.

4. Building protection apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the means for holding the automatic transmitter normally inactive is embodied in a pivoted and weighted latch lever with a solenoid controlled, pivoted and weighted armature adapted to trip said latch lever and with a series of condition-responsive devices in an electric circuit with such solenoid.

5. House protection apparatus comprising a dial telephone system, an automatic transmitter embodied in a plurality of rotary drums mounted on a common shaft with spring means tending to rotate said drums, means for individually locking said drums against rotation, and means for tripping said locking means to release either of said drums upon the occurrence of abnormal conditions, embodied in two series of thermostats, one series responsive to excess cold and the other series responsive to excess heat, each of said thermostat series having a solenoid in an electric circuit therewith, and with a swinging and weighted armature normally held inactive by the solenoid but adapted to swing by gravitation when released by the solenoid and to trip its respective lock to release one of said drums for turning movement to transmit dialing impulses.

6. A house protection apparatus comprising a dial telephone system, an automatic transmitter for transmitting dialing impulses to said system, a lock normally holding said transmitter inactive, condition-responsive devices having provision to trip said lock and release said transmitter on the tem equipped with a register adapted to record warning indicia from said transmitter and having also means for exhibiting a conspicuous warning indication to an attendant.

7. A house protection apparatus as set forth in claim 6 wherein said register.is equipped with means to ground the operating circuit to hold the operative connection, said circuit being equipped with a release key adapted to be released by an attendant.

.8. In combination with a standard public dial telephone system which includes a customer's dial telephone station, a common automatic switch- .ing central, and customer's line connection between the two; a building protection system com-' prising an automatic transmitter constructed and adapted to transmit dialing impulses to said customers line of a characterdistinct from those originating in the manual dial telephone, a lock normally holding said transmitter inactive, a condition-responsive device adapted to release said look upon the occurrence 01' an abnormal condition, and a special automatic switching central connected to said common central and arranged to be responsive to calls from said automatic transmitter only and to register selected warning indicia therefrom.

9. A building protection system as set forth in claim 8, wherein the special automatic switching central is equipped to provide sensory indication to an attendant.

10. A building protection system as set forth in claim 8, wherein means is provided to prevent said special central from receiving calls from manually operated dial transmitters.

11. In combination with a standard public dial telephone system which includes a subscribers dial telephone station, a common automatic switching central, and subscribers line connection between the two; a building protection system comprising an automatic transmitter adapted to transmit dialing impulses to said subscribers line, a lock normally holding said transmitter inactive, a condition-responsive device adapted to release said lock upon the occurrence of an abnormal condition in the building protected, a special automatic switching central connected with said common central and arranged to receive calls originating at said automatic transmitter and to record selected warning indicia therefrom, and means incorporated in said automatic transmitter for restoring said subscribers line to normal at the subscribers end after the said warning indicia have been recorded at the special central whereby calls may then be received at said subscribers station in the usual manner.

storing said transmitter to normal and inactive condition before said transmitter has transmitted any dialing impulses to said telephone system.

13. In an automatic telephone alarm system, the combination with a register adapted to record 4 I a,1os ,sao

warning indicia received from system, of e of the higher than ten whereby. special automatic switching centralconnectin: cnlll orizinstin: at stands-rd mums-operated with said register} a common automatic swltchtransmitters limited to ten consecutive impulses ing central having banks of switches with more cannot betransmittedthroulh and on centhanten steps, and o set oi standard manually trol to said special central. operated transmitters limited to ten-step opera- 7 JESS! J. BROWN. tion, said special central connected to steps I 

